David Gilhooly

Leader and advocate of the Bay Area Funk Art movement, promoting humorous and absurd creativity, David Gilhooly creates ceramic and Plexiglass sculptures of food and animals imbued with humor to confront the solemn art world. Gilhooly often references ancient civilizations, religion, politics, and culture, parodying their associated notions through clever assemblages of ceramic frogs and other creatures. Gilhooly is widely recognized for his “Frog World” series in which he creates a satirical amphibian universe that mirrors the human world to reflect a critical perspective on society. While Gilhooly hopes to reveal ignored issues of human existence, he also prioritizes the accessibility of his work and his overarching message. Through lowbrow humor, his work can be experienced, viewed, interpreted, and digested by all audiences.

Gilhooly has previously exhibited work at the Micaela Gallery in San Francisco, Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, Cantor Art Center at Stanford University in California, the San Jose Museum of art in California, San Francisco Museum of Art, and the ARCO Center for the Visual Arts in Los Angeles. His work has been included in the public collections of institutions such as Arizona State University, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Honolulu Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Oakland Museum of California, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.